What the president reads

[Thor_MN]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/bush.readinglist.tm/index.html

George Bush's critics think of his reading list as a spindly thing -- the Bible, the box scores and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, his favorite choice to read to school kids.

So there will be chuckles of disbelief when his detractors hear that one of his latest passions is Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy and that when it comes to approval from the intelligentsia, the President is more needy than he lets on. Written by an Israeli Cabinet minister and former Soviet dissident, the book argues that true security in the Middle East and the world can come only with ballot boxes. The President has pressed it on his top advisers and is even proselytizing outside his inner circle.
...

Bush liked the work so much that he invited Sharansky into the Oval Office in early November for an hourlong discussion of the book and how it applies to the war on terrorism.


Does this remind anyone else of Rodney Dangerfield paying Kurt Vonnegut to help with a term paper in Back to School?

[Dave Reynolds]

1. Wow

I am not familiar with that book, but it must have really awsome pictures.
:P

[madison2000]

2. Yeah, he read the book jacket and a couple of reviews

I wouldn't think he's capable of reading something longer than The Hungry Caterpillar.

[Ian David]

3. At the next press conference, they should give him a pop quiz

Obviously, not The Case for Democracy, since he's already had it read to him by the author.

But the next time Bush claims to have read a book, someone should ask him for details about it.

"Mr. President, can you tell us about Holden Caufield's dream, and how it relates to the title, 'Catcher in the Rye?"'"

[nashville_brook]

4. no chuckles of disbelief vis a vis his needing proof of intelligence

the smartypants vs. the jock subtext of the Gore/Bush race was a low point of human civilization. we've sunk so low since then i have to check to make sure i'm not dreaming.

[Straight Shooter]

5. Little Boots decides what catastrophe he wants to implement,

Then he finds a book to bolster his case.

Can anyone recommend a book to him which might inspire him to advocate fair and transparent elections in the United States? It would go a long way to setting a good example if he wants to impress his idealogy on other nations at the point of a gun.

[Paul Dlugokencky]

8. "...recommend a book"?

How about if he read the Constitution?

[priller]

14. Exactly right, he's simply looking to bolster his own views

"But if Bush is gathering information, it often seems to be sustenance for his pre-existing views."

The key sentence of the article. I'm sure he skims over the stuff he doesn't agree with and hangs on to the little bit that appears to support him.

Probably reads the Bible much the same way.

[UpInArms]

6. is that a "book on tape"? ........... eom

[madison2000]

7. It will be more interesting to see what this president writes

when he's out of office.

[HuckleB]

12. I think Dick works on that when he's in hiding.

[Jazzgirl]

13. You are kidding...aren't you??!!??

n/t

[madison2000]

19. Of course. I don't think he's capable of either putting together

a coherent argument or writing a decent paragraph. Both form and content would have to come from somewhere else... But ex-presidents do write books, so I'm sure something will come out under his name.

[AlCzervik]

9. it must come in "Pop-up" for idiot presidents.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. must be a coloring book nt

[rzemanfl]

11. Didn't he pull this stunt before with a book about

"Supreme Command" or somesuch, just before I conned us into the Iraq War? Read the book, can't remember the title. It was a historical thing about politicians and Generals.

[Just Me]

15. Written by an individual who has evolved into worse than a Nazi.

The man has no respect for human rights, degrades the human race to a rat race and embraces "whatever it takes" to usurp power.

Birds of a freakin' feather flock together,...yes?

On the other hand, maybe the author is a horribly SICK human being that never sought the treatment or got the treatment he deserved.

All I can say is,...he is NOT an advocate for human peace. He's a radical who has sold his soul for personal power.

[Algomas]

16. I thought he only read the entrails of poor people.

[NashVegas]

17. Moving The Thread

Puff pieces on * have no business in Late Breaking News.

[peterh]

18. No wonder the twit was able to get through it….

But I still think he needed help…

Loved the critique…..


http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Glick20041218.shtml

In his column in Yediot Ahronot last Friday, Nahum Barnea, who is considered Israel's journalistic supremo and proud socialist, wrote scathingly of Mr. Bush's attachment to the notions of democracy and morality. Speaking of Mr. Bush's recent reading of Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy, which argues that peaceful relations are contingent on individual freedom and democracy, Barnea sneered, "The book publisher can now advertise it as 'the only book the president has read in the last 10 years.'" He then went on to witheringly criticize Sharansky's book, describing it as "clear, easily digestible, unburdened by doubt, moralistic, very positive and totally simplistic."

[jmowreader]

20. We're talking the guy who likes one-page summaries of the PDB

Bush is a known skimmer. No wonder he had to bring Sharansky into the Oval Office.

[BBradley]

21. I've read some books too, doesn't mean I'm qualified to run the country.